Vedanta Comes To America
Truth is One. Sages call it by various names. Rig Veda
Swami Vivekananda brought the ancient spiritual truths of the Vedas to America when he spoke at
the Parliament of the Worlds' Religions in Chicago in September, 1893. His opening address,
"Sisters and brothers of America" resulted in a standing ovation by the thousands of men and
women present. He later wrote to a brother disciple:
Without shakti Power there is no regeneration for the world. Mother has been born to
revive that wonderful Shakti in India; and making Her the nucleus, once more
will Gargis and Maitreyis be born into the world...
(Letters of Swami Vivekananda. Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati. 1993. page 181.)
Swami Vivekananda later declared that: I have a message for the West as Buddha had a message for the East.
One hundred years after the first Parliament a number of Vedanta women including current members of the Sri Sarada Mahila Samiti, attended the second Parliament of the Worlds' Religions in Chicago in 1993. We were inspired by the talks of the three representatives of Sri Sarada Math including Revered Pravrajika Amalaprana, the current General Secretary; Revered Pravrajika Vivekaprana, the current head of the Retreat Center of the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission at Pangot, India and author of "The Understanding Vedanta" series; and Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana, of Sri Sarada Math headquarters in Kolkata and author of numerous books including the discisples of Swami Vivekananda.
Pravrajika Vivekaprana wrote:
It is Swami Vivekananda who gave women the encouragement or the impetus to break this
final barrier of being controlled by external nature. He had tremendous faith not only in the
women of India but in women all over the world and he believed that the next revolution
has to come through women, because this half or more of humanity has never
exercised the right to set the problems of this world in order. ...He further believed that
in India particularly, if society had to rise out of this condition of degradation, it is the women
who have to realize their power. He paid special respect to the mother, because she is the
first educator. She is the only one who can give to humanity its lost pride. Swamiji
entertained a dream that the women of India would rise to this great height and educate
society. Keeping this is in mind, he lectured in this land (America) with the aim of gathering
funds to build a spiritual organization for women.
(Pravrajika Vivekaprana. "Vivekananda on Women". Samvit. September, 1994. pages 19, 20)